Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-02-18


| OF great multitude of Gods dear children
| pillars of smoke.
What an exciting scene in India when dur
| Ing the Sepoy rebellion regiment of High
| landerS came uo and found the dead BODY of
| one of General Wheeler's daughters who
mad been insulted aud mauled and slain by
the SepOys So greet was the wrath against
these murlereTs that the Scotch regiment
sat down, and cutting of The hair of this
dead dauohter of General Wheeler they
| divided it among them, and each one
counted thu number of hairs given
h m, and each took an oath, which
was executed, that for each hair OF the
murdered daughter they would dash out the
! life of miserable Sepoy But as we look
over the story of those who in all ages have
suffered for the truth, while we leave ven
| geance to the Lord, let us band together in
| one solemn VOW. one tremendous oath, after
having counted the host of the martyrs, that
FOR each one of those glorious men and
women who died for the truth, an immortal
soul shall live, live with God and live for
| ever.
But as l already limited in the first sem
fence OF this sermon, nothing can be more
beautiful than the figures of smoke ON clear
sky. YoI can see what you Will in the con-
| tour of this volatile vapor, now enchanted
castles, now troops of horsemen, now ban
| nered procession, now winged courlerS, now
a black angel of wrath under a spear of the
sunshine turned to an angel of light, AMI
now from horizon TO horizon the air is q
picture gallery filled with masterpieces of
which God is the artist, morning clouds OF
smoke born in the sunrise, and evening
! clouds of smoke laid in the FURNISHED sepul-
chres of the sunset
| The beauty of the trausfigured smoke is
| divine symbol of the beauty of the Church.
The fairest of all the fair is she. Do not call
| those prosecutors of whom l spoke the
Church. They are the PARASITES of the
Church, not the Church itself. Her mission
is to cover the earth with a supernatural
giadness. to open all the prison DOORS to
balsam all the wounds, to moss all the graves,
to burn up the night in the fireplace of a great
morning, to change iron handouts into dia-
monded wristlets, to turn the whole race
around and whereas it faced DEATH COM
! manding it.: "Right about face for heaven! {"
According to the number of the spires of the
churches in all our cities, towns, and neigh
borhoods are the good homes the worldly
prosperities, and tho pure morals and the
happy souls.
Meet me at any deuot the world over, AMI
with my eyes closed take me by the hand and
lead me - that my feet VII not stumble, and
without my once looking down, or looking
on the level, take me to some high roof or
tower and let me see the tops OF the churches,
and will tell you the proportion of suicides,
VI ul SOuo' VI VI OltLJS' dS
the churches are numerous are the crimes
few. According as the churches are few
the crimes are numerous. The most beautiful
organization the world ever saw or ever will
see is the much maligned Church. the friend
of all good, the foe of all evil, 'fair as the
moon and clear as the SUM-" Beautiful in
her author, beautiful in her mission, the
heroine of the centuries the bride of Christ,
the queen of the nations. There are hun
dreds Of kindly institutions, some car
ing for inebriates, some for the crippled,
some for the imbenile, some for the
misled some for the blind. but the Church is
the mother of all these knily institutions.
Inere are asyIums, American, or English, or
Scotch, or Irish, or French or Germany, or
Italian, but the Church spreads her mantle
over all these, and will yet spread it over all
nations. Her gates are beautiful her
songs are beautiful her prayers are
beautiful, her convocations are beauti-
full, her work is beautiful All Kings and
warriors will yet bow down at her altars all
chains of serfdom be shattered against her
doorstep, all nations will yet fellow her lead
ing. How amiable are thy tabernacles! How
sacred thy altarsl How glorious thy audito-
riumsl So gra "eful, SO aspiring, so grand,
and rolling on, and rolling up, we cry out
in regard to her. "Who is she that cometh
out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke?n
Men may deSecrate it, as Cromwell when
he stabbed his cavalry horses in st. Paul's
Cathedral; or break off the image Of Christ,
as did the icOnoclastS in York Minister: or
hurl against it august literary antipathies, as
did Gibbon; or plot its overthrow. as do some
in every community whose pride and hate
and debauchery are reprovel by the Ten
Commandments which it thunders, and
the Sermon on the Mount which
it breathes But it will stand
as long as the earth stands, the same UNIQUE,
and wonder working beatifc, and miracu-
lous thing for which God decreed it. Small
wits tax their brain to say things that will
put her at disadvantage, but many of them
will send for its coincidence when dying, and
its benedictions after the parental curse
has been removed. Through her gates
will march all tie influences for good
that shall ever reach our world. Take her
membership as mass, not speaking of the
acknowledged exceptions, they are the no.
blest, grandest, kindest, best men and women
of the ages But for them the earth would
long ago have been burned out volcano.
They have been the salt that has kept the
human race from putrefacton inSufferable
either to human or angelic olfactories. You
lying and hypocritiral world, shut up those
ISLANDERS about the Church of Christ, an in
stitution which, far from being what it
ought to be and never pretending to be per-
feet, is five hundred times better than any
other institution that the world ever saw or
ever dreamt of. The highest honor ever had,
and the highest hon l shall ever receive,
and the highest honor | ever want is to have
my name on her records as member. At
her altars repente1. At her sacraments |
believed. In her service let me die. From
her doors let me be burie1. Oh, Church of
God! Thou homo of the righteous! Thou har-
Dor from tempesti Thou refuge for the weary
Thou lighthouse of many nationsl Thou
| tyre of heavenl I could kiss thy very dust
with ecstasy of affection.
"For her my tears shall fall,
For her my prayers ascend,
To her my tolls and cares be given
Till tolls and cares shall endn
"Perfumed smoke" says Solomon, in the
words following my text. Not like the fumes
| coughed up from the throat of a steam-pipe,
! or poisoned with the gases of chemical facto-
ries, or floating in black wrath from the con-
iagration of home teads, or sulphurous from
blazing batteries, but sweet as a burning
| grove Of cinnamon or Jungle of SassafraS,
or the odors of temple censer. ''Who is this
| that cometh out OF the wilderness like pillars
| of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frank
incense2' Hear it, men and women every
| where, that the advance of the genuine
| Church of Christ means peace for all nations
Victor Hugo, in his book entitled "Ninety.
thres," says: "Nothing calmer than smoke
but Eothing moro startling. There are peace
| nens and color of a line Of smoke make the
whole difference between war and peace, be-
tween fraternity and hatred. The whole hap
piness of man or his complete misery is some
times expressed IN this thin vapor which the
wind scatters at will" The great French
man was right, but go further and say that
as the Kingdom of God advances like pillars
Of smoke, the black volumes belching from
batteries of war and pouring out from port
holes of ships will vanish from the sky.
A distinguished General of the late war
told me recently that Abraham Lincoln pro-
posed to avoid our civil conflict by purchase